Category: Marketing Strategies

Take The Car Challenge

Here is an interesting take on those famous old “Touch The Car” endurance competitions of the days gone bye…Peugeot launched the “Take The Car” challenge online, where users would compete live from around the world to score a week with the car of their choice.

After connecting with Facebook, users could choose a car, then click-and-hold down the mouse for as long as they possibly could. Every time someone joined the competition, their profile pic would appear on the car in real time, so users could actually see their competitors in the challenge. While all this was going on for hours on end, the website spat out over 9,000 words of pure sales information to help brainwash contestants into wanting the car! 😆

Don’t Tell Ashton

A bunch of students from Berghs School of Communication – Stockholm, wanted to promote their class to the advertising industry and attract International talent to study at their school, and more specifically their program i.e. Interactive Communication.

So they created something that could catch anyone’s attention, and would also spread the word about them into the advertising world.

The core of the project was to demonstrate their understanding for digital by highlighting the new phenomenon of “social currency”. They identified Twitter as the perfect place to execute the same, based on the behavior of tweeters i.e. sharing information and love/hate for a brand with their fellow peers, with each tweet influencing other’s perception.

They invited people to join the world’s first artwork made by Twitter users. People “paid” to get on the artwork with a tweet, and the more followers you reached, the bigger your photo was in the frame. The only person with enough followers to fill the entire piece alone, was the most followed person on Twitter at that time, Ashton Kutcher. That’s why they also urged people to #Don’t Tell Ashton.

The result…

To see the artwork visit www.donttellashton.com.

Big Noses Discount

BGH Air Conditioners in Argentina wanted to promote their new line of silent air conditioners. So agency Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi came up with a whacky integrated advertising campaign called “Big Nose”.

Together they created the nose-o-meter, an in-store device capable of measuring noses. If your nose was big enough to touch the sensor, an alarm would go off and one could win a 25 percent discount!

At www.bignosebgh.com online visitors could upload their profile picture, in order to find out if their nose was big enough to win. The site also indicated where shoppers could find the nearest nose-o-meter to get a shot at the discount.

Human Jukebox

On the 26th November 2010 Fredrik Hjelmquist, CEO of Pause Home Entertainment, swallowed a specially made wireless sound system in order to transform himself to a Human Jukebox. The device was then controlled wirelessly, allowing anyone to play music inside of him by simply visiting his company’s website and picking a track.

With this stunt, Swedish agency Akestam Holst was able to establish that when it comes to custom sound systems by Pause Home Entertainment, anything was possible! 🙂

Living Christmas Cards

To create truly unique christmas cards, agency Akestam Holst came up with the idea of ‘Living Christmas Cards’. They got the Swedish Post to team up with Niklas Blindh, a sami and reindeer owner from up north, and the people of Funäsdalen, a small mountain village in northern Sweden. Together they built Living Christmas Cards, something that was a bit more personal than your ordinary e-greeting or SMS.

To try it out yourself visit: www.livingchristmascards.com

What a person can miss a machine will find

Every year in Poland, more women die because of breast cancer than in car accidents, because of late diagnostics. Most women know and perform – although not regularly – breast self-examination. They perceive this technique as sufficient for breast cancer diagnosis. They think further examinations are not required. That’s why only a few sign up for mammogram scanning.

The Polish Federation of Cancer Survivors therefore wanted to change this perception by communicating “What a person can miss the machine will find”. Stressing that mammogram scanning is by far better and more accurate in diagnosing breast cancer, and that women should use it on a regular basis.

So ad agency, Euro RSCG Warsaw came up with a unique way to draw women’s attention to the “breast issues” at the most appropriate moment i.e. when buying a bra and in the place where they would never expect this kind of communication. The mechanics of the action explained by itself the way a mammogram test works in a very simple but suggestive way: the gate beeps when you pass by and it turns out there is something in the bag you would not expect to have. Thanks to the information printed on the tag, women were able to quickly and easily make an appointment for a mammogram scan.

The initiative was supported by the Federation of Amazonki, the Ministry of Health and the Oncology Center in Warsaw. H&M in central Warsaw participated by hosting the event as it had a wide range of customers with different ages…from teenagers to women being 50-60 years old.

There were 330 tags given away in 2 days and the website was visited by 1,650 unique visitors, strongly indicating the word of mouth power of the action. The number of phone calls increased 10% in comparison with the before-action results. Post-action effect continue when women visit other stores and hear the beeping.

Kia Lie Detector

Most people in Belgium know that Korean car brand Kia gives a 7-year warranty on all its models. That’s a good thing. But, a lot of them think 7 years warranty is too good to be true and that there must be a catch. That’s a problem. If people don’t believe your advertising message then regular advertising is insufficient. A different approach was needed. One where traditional advertising was supported by editorial content and especially a lot of word of mouth.

LDV United came up with a campaign where everybody got reminded that only Kia gives 7 years warranty. And that, although it sounds too good to be true, it is in fact 100% true and that there is no catch.

To prove the warranty was genuine and that there was no catch, a lie detector was used. Legal connections, an official lie detector company, hooked up the CEO of Kia Motors to their lie detector. Consumers then asked him questions on the 7-year warranty during a live online session.

The stunt was communicated through newspaper ads, banners and a press release telling everyone that an actual CEO would be undergoing a live lie detector test. As a result the event was picked up by countless blogs and got featured in various newspapers and magazines. A lot of buzz was generated on the streets.

The campaign’s impact according to independent media company Scripta was…

  • Brand recognition: 42% (instead of 32% sector average)
  • Attribution: 73% (instead of 62% sector average)
  • Resulting in an Effectiveness Rating of 31% (instead of 20% sector average)
  • And last but not least: An impressive credibility of 80%

Zoo Records “Hidden Live”

Thousands of Hong Kong’s alternative music fans crave the raw energy, focus, passion and participation of a live performance. Zoo Records, Hong Kong’s most celebrated alternative music store faced the challenge to bring this live experience directly to the fans.

Zoo Records with Leo Burnett Hong Kong created a campaign called “Hidden Live” that went on to became the world’s first live mobile music festival!

As a result more than 10,000 people packed into the festival each night and countless more got involved as constant clips were shared online. Zoo Records sold out 80 percent of the albums for those eight performing bands. But most importantly, alternative music came alive in tens of thousands of venues all over Hong Kong.

American Rom Takeover

Romania’s Rom, manufactured by Kandia Dulce, is a traditional chocolate bar that all Romanians have grown up with. Wrapped in the national flag, it has an aging and nostalgic consumer base. However with the young generation Romanians it was losing ground as they preferred cool American brands.

To tackle the problem, McCann Erickson Bucharest came up with the ‘American Rom Takeover’ campaign. They challenged the young Romanian national ego by replacing Rom’s packaging with an American version. It was a very risky deception! But it was hugely successful and since then has won McCann Erickson the Grand Prix in the Promo & Activation Lions at Cannes International Festival of Creativity.